LIFE ON MARS - "Tuesday's Dead" - Sam Tyler finds it difficult to separate a life-and-death hostage situation taking place at County Hospital from his own strange circumstances. Stressed about a phone call where he seems to hear his mother's voice -- in 2008 -- begging him to wake up, he and the rest of the squad are ordered to diffuse a potentially explosive face-off in which a crazed gunman is trying to force a doctor to reverse a dangerous operation on the renegade's brother. Sam, Ray, Annie and Lt. Hunt are all targeted in the madman's cross hairs, but as Sam and the 1-2-5 attempt to resolve the confrontation, he suddenly realizes that the clock ticking on the gunman's demands parallels another deadline that could spell the end of Sam Tyler, on "Life on Mars," THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13 (10:01-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/PATRICK HARBRON)JONATHAN MURPHY, MICHAEL IMPERIOLI, HARVEY KEITEL less

LIFE ON MARS - "Tuesday's Dead" - Sam Tyler finds it difficult to separate a life-and-death hostage situation taking place at County Hospital from his own strange circumstances. Stressed about a phone call ... more

Photo: Patrick Harbron, ABC

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Postmortem on networks limping out of fall

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Uh-oh.

That's what the broadcast networks must have thought when the ratings started coming in for the fall season.

They were not good. They were down. Networks that took gambles on bringing back freshman series that were cut short by the writers strike - namely ABC and NBC - saw that strategy take a beat-down. Most new shows struggled. Buzz was lost. Viewer boredom set in.

Almost immediately, a pall settled over the season. Anecdotal evidence from readers backed up the lackluster ratings reports: Few fall shows had caught their attention.

CBS, which is impressively consistent from year to year in its programming, found some hits, including the fall's break-out show, "The Mentalist." Another drama, "Eleventh Hour," proved that nobody does closed-ended procedurals quite like CBS does, as the numbers stood up week after week.

ABC got good reviews for its remake of the British series "Life on Mars," and the ambitious series shows signs of surviving heavy competition.

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The good news mostly ends there.

Fox, which had early and heavy buzz on its freshman drama "Fringe," saw much of that sputter as the inconsistencies of the series became ever more obvious. (The series was helped, ratings-wise, when the stalwart "House" returned.) A sitcom, "Do Not Disturb," was a complete disaster and was quickly canceled.

NBC's strike-shortened series fared badly, as did ABC's. ABC's entire Wednesday lineup - "Pushing Daisies," "Private Practice," "Dirty Sexy Money" - imploded. Viewers who didn't get a chance to fall in love with shows in the previous, strike-shortened season, were in no mood to rekindle the romance this fall.

In addition to ABC's Wednesday-night woes, it didn't get much traction with second-season series "Eli Stone." Plus, there wasn't much viewer loyalty for Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," or NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" and "Life."

In the midst of all this failure, something strange happened. Before Wednesday, only Fox had decided to swing the ax ("Do Not Disturb"). NBC proved, by giving full-season orders to "Knight Rider," "Kath & Kim" and "Life" (after already going with "Chuck" and "Heroes"), that its misfortune looks to be as deep as our nation's economic crisis. Fox also ordered a full season of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," despite rumors that it would be canceled.

Possible explanations

If all of this "patience" smells a bit fishy, well, that's because it stinks. Perhaps blame could be extended all the way back to the strike, or it could nestle comfortably against the economic conditions that have hurt Hollywood as well as Main Street America. It could even be that the industry is wary of a looming Screen Actors Guild strike, though that seems unlikely.

No, most networks are being frugal and trying to limp into the holiday season without wasting any more cash on bad programming decisions.

Once January comes around, the nebulously titled "midseason" will begin with a rush and will probably feel more like a traditional fall launch for most viewers. Once again, hope will plan a comeback.

Until then, the brutal truth is that this was a dismal fall and any failure analysis should conclude that relaunching warmed-over rejects from the strike season was a bad idea and that all the networks, save CBS, underperformed in their new series development.

On Wednesday, NBC couldn't maintain its ridiculous state of denial and canceled "My Own Worst Enemy" (apparently the relentless promotion during the Summer Olympics didn't pay off) and "Lipstick Jungle," the sophomore series that tried to get that "Sex and the City" vibe going, but didn't. (ABC more wisely didn't give its "Sex and the City" wannabe, "Cashmere Mafia," a second chance after last season.)

NBC's midseason slate must be as awful as expected, otherwise it would separate itself from the losers it currently has on the roster.

The Wednesday pink slips were more bad news for the networks. Perhaps the most shocking announcement came last week when Fox blithely declared that its much-anticipated midseason series, "Dollhouse," was going to air Fridays. That's the worst night of the TV week, not counting Saturdays, when scripted series never air anymore.

Humiliating exile

Granted, the high-profile series from respected creator Joss Whedon was going through some very public tinkering. Fox shut down production at one point (as it did with "24"), and there was much speculation that Fox and Whedon were at odds, as they were on "Firefly," his last big - failed - venture for the network.

But Friday nights? That's just rude. You could make the argument that by also shifting "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" to that night, Fox is establishing a beachhead for sci-fi-influenced series. But "Terminator" was supposed to be dead already. And it's not very good. What does that say about Fox's midseason-buzz show?

ABC will also reportedly juggle its schedule in January, moving "Private Practice" to Thursday nights after "Grey's Anatomy," the series it was spun from, and "Life on Mars" to Wednesdays, after "Lost."

That certainly makes sense thematically, but network shell games often end up confusing viewers. And that could be especially costly this season, when it appears they're not paying much attention.